Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Hellerup Sailing Club Takes Win at Rungsted
(Rungsted, Denmark)- When the Danish Sailing Association was first
looking at ways to grow participation in sailing across all sailing
clubs in Denmark, they knew their goal was to create an all-inclusive
approach that permitted both young and old alike, women and children,
World Champions and experienced club sailors to gather together in an
experience where everyone could grow together.

"There are a number of good reasons why the J/70 is the obvious choice
as the sailing league boat,” said Mads Kolte-Olsen, Secretary General of
the Danish Sailing Association. "J/70 today is one of the world's
fastest growing boat classes and will in a few years have a significant
market in Europe. It’s a boat that can appeal to both young and more
experienced sailors, and it's a boat with a high build quality, which is
of great importance in relation to maintenance. In fact, absolutely
crucial in choosing the J/70 was the success of the boat from the German
Segel-Bundesliga.”

As
part of growing sailing participation, the “Sejlsportsliagen” managed
to secure ATEA as a primary sponsor. ATEA is a Danish IT solutions
company that covers a wide range of disciplines- from basic cabling,
data center design and network to complete IT infrastructure. The
company employs approximately 6,600 employees in the Nordic and Baltic
countries. In Denmark alone, ATEA has 1,400 employees. According to
ATEA’s CEO Morten Felding, “The innovation of the Sejlsportsliagen is in
line with ATEA’s ability to always be ahead of the future. In fact,
there are many similarities between sailing and the discipline ATEA
exercise every day. ATEA customers maneuver in unpredictable and complex
situations where conditions can change in a split second. In order to
constantly stay ahead of the next challenge, it requires that you have
knowledgeable personnel and that equipment is tuned optimally, so there
is profit to the strategic decisions. This is what creates winners.”

"We must make it visible! The League will be the new ‘lighthouse’,
bringing together the sport of sailing in Denmark and show the world
what sailing is all about. Therefore, we have emphasized that the league
is simple in form and visible to all who want to keep up, "says Mads
Kolte-Olsen. “The goal is for the Sailing League to create a renewed
focus on the sport and eventually help reverse a downward spiral that
characterizes the Danish sailing clubs' membership in recent years.”

In
fact, Thomas Jacobsen, sports manager of the Danish Sailing
Association, sees Sejlsportsliagen as a potential lever for improving
Denmark’s competitive capability at the international level in sailing
on a broad front. “The Sailing League can give our young sailors- both
in Olympic classes and offshore classes- some important tactical skills
and train their ability to cooperate and communicate in the water. It
will greatly benefit Danish sailors. Perhaps it could act as a
springboard to a career at the top level!”

As
part of the educational and outreach program, the Sejlsportsliagen team
has focused on “live” tracking and commentating of the event. In this
case, they’ve secured SAP’s sponsorship (the big German IT/ database
company whose Chairman/ CEO is Hasso Plattner- an avid sailor that has
in his fleet a J/100, J/105 and J/125!). "We are proud to have SAP for
the provision of services and performance tracking. It gives us a great
opportunity to expose the league to all electronic platforms. The races
can be "the talk of the town" throughout Denmark, because all interested
sailors and friends have access to a live experience," explains Peter
Wolsing, Danish Sailing Association's project leader on the
Sejlsportsliagen.

The 2014 Sejlsportsliagen season has four events planned:

May 31- Jun 1 Rungsted

Jun 20-22 Sonderborg

Aug 22-24 Hellerup

Sep 5-7 Aarhus

The first event in Rungsted saw eighteen leading Danish sailing clubs
participating. The first day could not have started better, with clear
skies, at least 10-20 kts winds and very shifty. It was clear one club
had the J/70s figured out faster than anyone else. Hellerup Sailing
Club, with skipper Mads Christensen, started off the first day with four
1sts! The regatta managed to get in ten races overall for all teams
rotating into the line-up.

On the second day of sailing, the opening day’s fresh winds quieted
down. The lighter winds took some stress off the crews, who for the
most part were unfamiliar with the J/70s. The scoreboard showed that
Hellerup SC with Christensen skippering stayed atop the fleet. After
eight completed flights (equivalent to 24 races), in second were KDY
(Kongelig Dansk YC) and third Silkeborg Sailing Club.

The
final day on Sunday dawned with little breeze. In fact, only enough to
get in two more races for each team. Despite the light airs, it was a
day full of drama, a false start by HSC creating tension until the end.
In the first race, KDY won with Lotte Meldgaard as skipper and Hellerup
SC was overcoming an OCS and managed to scrap back to a third. At that
point, KDY was winning the regatta. However, in the closing race, HSC
managed to pull off a good result to win the first leg of the
Sejlsportsliagen in Rungsted! Third was Silkeborg Sailing Club finished
third with 40 points. SAP Sailing AnalyticsSailing photos- from Jacob Møhl (DS sport)Facebook Sejlsportsliagen For more J/70 Danish Sailing League information